This invention relates to oxyalkyne compounds corresponding to the formula I ##STR3## to pharmaceutical compositions containing at least one such oxyalkyne compound, as well as to processes for preparing such oxyalkyne compounds and pharmaceutical compositions.
Polyunsaturated higher fatty acids such as arachidonic acid serve in the metabolism of mammals, including humans, as substrates for the formation of physiologically and pathophysiologically important eicosanoids such as prostaglandins and leukotrienes. The pathway to prostaglandins is initiated by cyclooxygenase, whereas the pathway to leukotrienes is initiated by 5-lipoxygenase.
The prostaglandins are products having known beneficial functions in mammals, while it is known for the leukotrienes that they cause allergic reactions ranging up to anaphylactic and septic shock, bronchoconstriction, and asthma. Due to the numerous harmful effects of leukotrienes, there is a need for chemically and metabolically stable compounds which in the living organism have no effect on the biosynthesis of prostaglandins but selectively inhibit the activity of 5-lipoxygenase and thus prevent the formation of the undesired leukotrienes. Acetohydroxamic acid compounds which significantly inhibit the activity of 5-lipoxygenase but have no inhibitory action on cyclooxygenase are disclosed in Brit. J. Pharmacol. 94, 528 (1988). There remains a need, however, for other compounds exhibiting selective 5-lipoxygenase inhibiting activity.